Complaint Wiki

A little bird told me that some people are getting a bit cheesed off with Wikia. OK, it wasn't a little bird and more like everybody who I've been talking to for the last three weeks. It's my personal opinion that Wikia's essential aims are noble but hugely clouded by advertisers and the need to please them. For this reason, I think people should have access to information which will help them decide whether Wikia really is right for them.

Complaints wiki does a good job in this sense: it's an archive of discussions relating to the Wikia situation with links to press articles and specialised sections for each wiki that has moved from Wikia. It must be noted that, although it is a wiki, it's more for reading than contributing to: feel free to leave your opinions in the comments section of this post.

Do Wikia care about us? I suspect not. However, read the complaints wiki and make up your own minds. Of course, we wouldn't want to influence your opinion in any way, would we? The Illogiblog does not wish to incriminate itself any further for 'forcing its views upon people'. So, forget you even read this post and I'll personally post some treacle toffee to your house.

Another essay on Wikia

I was lying when I said I gave you my final word on Wikia. The actual likelihood is that the closure saga might run on for longer than was originally expected, especially since the Wikia representatives have been rather quiet on 'their' Illogicopedia site recently.

Still, I've been immersing myself in past Wikia discussions in order to form a more informed opinion on the situation with Wikia as a whole. They do have their numerous vociferous critics but I am tempted to feel sorry for Wikia and the fact they are under constant pressure to pander to advertisers' wishes. After all, they are the middle men that have little real say in the big decisions - their financial situation dictates what goes on at the site, in essence. A pity, because the idea of a collective pool of knowledge that anyone can access and cite freely is an idea that even Henri de Saint-Simon would be proud of, and for all Wikipedia's well-publicised problems with accuracy of entries, for a free resource it's better than a kick in the teeth.

But the road to Hell is paved with good intentions, especially where big business is concerned. It is all too easy to take the view that each and every one of Wikia's actions are governed by their advertisers, but at some point along the line they must concede that their soul is slowly ebbing away with the inevitable community departures. It could be argued that ^{[weasel words]} it's time for Wikia to admit defeat - the list of disgruntled 'customers' (if you could call them that) grows by the day is only going to get larger as long as the advertisers have their way. And would the world be a worse-off place without the Family Guy Wikia? Or the Cheese Wikia? I'd guess for most people the answer would be 'no', after all, where these sites are concerned Wikia is just acting as a glorified web host, surely?

I disagree. It's my personal opinion that the wiki is an excellent invention, a wonderful tool for communities to collect their knowledge together in one place quickly and easily. And so what if there are adverts? Not everybody can afford their own private, ad-free webhosts. So, I say the following.

If you aren't too concerned about site design and having to give up ad space at the expense of information; if you aren't concerned about dealing with corporate representatives and their stock responses to queries, then go ahead, Wikia will be an excellent choice. Be warned, though, for invariably big business is a large, capitalist farmer willing to milk you for all you're worth and whose decision making essentially seeks to benefit themself.

I still maintain that, in Illogicopedia's case, Wikia could have been more trusting and respectful of the community. The backlash is likely to be a drawn-out one, and though things are likely to be resolved quicker than the Spanking Art (this link SFW, the wiki itself may not be) situation, the whole New Monaco/Advertising dispute can't have escaped the attention of the wider press. You must have gathered by now that this thing is much bigger than the Illogicopedia.

I bid you good day, and a happy Thanksgiving season if you're in North America.

Wikia sucks... or does it? The Final Word... maybe.

Warning: this post is longer than the Brazilian national anthem sung by Mariah Carey on Mogadon.

"Wikia is capitalism dressed up as socialism" -- Andrew Keen

The dust has yet to fully settle on the Illogicopedia independence movement but for all the comments made in anger recently, I thought it was about time I gave my honest opinion on they that are known as Wikia. Most of this stuff I have already stated at some point or another in the last month, and you may well disagree with a lot of it but I've been involved indirectly with Wikia for a long, long while and this is my opinion on the matter.

You probably know my position on the 'keep a dead wiki open for as long as possible' situation. At the time of writing, this has yet to happen to Illogic, but the precedent is there (and benefit of the doubt can only last for so long) - the Transformers wiki now has two versions, one at Wikia, one independent.

Common courtesy says delete the old wiki and/or create a hard redirect to the new one in respect of the departing community. But since when was big business about common courtesy? Wikia is a for-profit organisation and naturally needs the cash to survive and flourish, so it is in their own interest to keep their wiki open: and let's face it, they are well within their rights. The cynical might say the reason for their actions is to run in direct competition to the independent wiki, hogging Google rank and milking the content for every penny it's worth.

Now, New Monaco might have been forgiveable if it weren't for the perceived selfishness of the aforementioned. Don't get me wrong, Wikia are committed to creating new wikis and thus expanding their knowledge bases for specialist subjects. A noble quest indeed, but again the whole situation comes down to money. In this sense I feel sorry for Wikia and those who created the project - their primary goal is being hugely clouded by their need to constantly please the advertisers.

Hence New Monaco. Hence keeping dead wikis open. Hence moving the Uncyclopedia domain name to Wikia servers. The community at large disagree with these decisions but remember: money + money = money. Money!

Personally, I am glad we jumped ship at the point we did. The Wikia service has, on the whole, been top-notch: downtime has been rare. I could live with New Monaco. I could live with the stupid advertisements (and we did for nineteen months) and the feeling of patronism involved with being 'babysat'.

What changed my mind was the community's increasing disgruntledness and disillusionment with our Great Overlords. One of our most respected editors refused to contribute any longer until we ditched Wikia, and yet others threatened to leave Illogicopedia forever. I know the situation is very similar at Uncyclopedia, too.

The co-founders have slightly differing opinions on the matter. Nerd thinks that, whilst on balance Wikia have been a good server, the time has come to move on. Sepp reckons Wikia never wanted us in the first place, evidenced by their reluctance to accept Illogicopedia into their community.

I agree in part with both but I suppose business will be business - harsh, cruel and relentlessly capitalist in its nature. This doesn't really mix with Illogicopedia's laid back ethics, so the time was right. For dancing in the streets. Which I shall now go and do, even though it's chucking it down and there's a strange man in a mackintosh.

Phew, a politics post. I need a lie down after that... don't worry, the light relief will return sooner rather than potater.